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IOC/IODE-XVI/18
Paris, 15 September 2000
Original: English
INTERGOVERNMENTAL OCEANOGRAPHIC COMMISSION
(of UNESCO)
Sixteenth Session of the IOC Committee on International Oceanographic Data and Information
Exchange (IODE), Lisbon, Portugal, 30 October – 9 November 2000
The World Ocean Database: Project Proposal
Prepared by Sydney Levitus, Director, World Data Center-A for Oceanography
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The full document will be made available by the author prior or during the Session
The success of the Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue project (GODAR)
sponsored by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) indicates the willingness
of scientists and institutions of member states of the IOC to contribute data to the development
of global oceanographic databases through the IODE system and the ICSU WDC system.
The international oceanographic community has had a long history of exchanging oceanographic
data that begins with the founding of the International Council for Exploration of the Sea (in
1902) and publication of oceanographic profile data in its Bulletin Hydrographique and
publication of plankton data in its Bulletin Planktonique beginning during 1907-1908.
There is a pressing need for the international oceanographic and climate communities to have
access to the most complete oceanographic databases possible for scientific studies in support of
international agreements and treaties such as:
A)
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Climate Change of 1992 (FCCC);
B)
Convention of 1972 on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping Wastes
and Other Matters (London Convention);
C)
Convention of 1992 on Biological Diversity (Biodiversity Convention).
Both the most recent scientific assessment of climate change by the Intergovernmental Program
on Climate Change (IPCC, 1996) and the CLIVAR (1995) Science Implementation Plan strongly
emphasize the need to understand the role of the ocean in climate change.
The GODAR project has focused on locating and rescuing historical oceanographic profile and
plankton data that are at risk of being lost due to media decay.
During the last twenty years the international oceanographic community has begun distributing
temperature and more recently salinity data via the Global Telecommunications System (GTS)
as illustrated by the IGOSS and GTSPP projects . However many data types such as CTD and
undulating CTD are not sent in real-time. Such data need to become part of a global ocean
database as soon as possible.
IOC/IODE-XVI/18
page 2
We propose the establishment of a World Ocean Database project to, stimulate international
exchange of as much modern oceanographic dat
data
a as possible, for the purpose of constructing
the most complete integrated global oceanographic databases possible in order to, advise
nations on the state on the state of the world ocean.
Such databases must be as inclusive as possible of the data and metadata of commonly
measured oceanographic variables and simultaneously measured meteorological variables.
Such databases will be made available internationally without restriction in accordance with
ICSU WDC data management principles (ICSU, 1996) as exemplified by distribution of the World
Ocean Atlas 1994 and World Ocean Database 1998 databases.
REFERENCES
Levitus, S., R. Gelfeld, T. Boyer, and D. Johnson, 1994: Results of the NODC and IOC
Data Archaeology and Rescue projects. Key to Oceanographic Records Documentation
No. 19, National Oceanographic Data Center, Wash., D.C., 67 pp.
Conkright, M.E., T. Boyer, and S. Levitus 1994: Quality control and processing of
historical oceanographic nutrient data. NOAA Technical Report NESDIS 79, National
Oceanographic Data Center, Wash., D.C., 75 pp.
ICSU (International Council of Scientific Unions), 1996: World Data Center System
Guide: General Principles, World Data Centers, Data Services, Paris, 109 pp.
IPCC (Intergovernmental Program on Climate Change), 1996: Climate Change 1995: The
Science of Climate Change- Contribution of Working Group I to the Second Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press,
567 pp.
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